Our Lady of the Blue Highways

Sunday, September 16, 2012

NOTHING IS EVER LOST

Diane and I joined the “Loner’s on Wheels” For another
campout.This one was in Lewistown.

We drove down on Friday, getting a late start, then hitting
highway construction along the way – trying to get all that re-paving and
repairs done before the snow flies.

It was so smoky when we left Belt, I think we had less than
1 mile visability.(if this is not
spelled right,will someone tell me
where to find spell check on Vista?)

When we arrived in Lewistown, we couldn’t even see the
Judith Mountains, directly north of town.The wind was blowing briskly all day.A fellow named Buck was waiting to welcome us – Gloria and Charlie had
gone into town to check out an antique auction. Jeanine joined us about 6PM, so we had a small group.

The campground was actually a rest stop sponsored by the
local Kiwanis club.Very nice of them!

Diane and I proceeded to set up camp.We laid out the big tent, and pounded and
shifted stakes and pounded again – about 1 inch down, we kept hitting
rock!!!!Finally, with 4 stakes in about
half way, I threaded the shock-cords for the doors, then threaded one of the
red roof poles, reached for the other one – and it was nowhere!!!!I searched the tent bag, the pole bags, the
whole pickup to no avail.I was so upset
– I must have been in such a hurry when I packed up in Logging Creek last
month, I left it behind at the campsite.Well, not to worry – I had the little tent with me, which we set
up.Now, we have 2 twin bed air mattresses
– installed in the little tent – there is about 4 inches between mattresses.So we were very crowded,

We went to bed early -at sundown.Diane had placed the
pillows at the door end of the tent – so we had to crawl in, then get turned
around, balancing on the air mattresses – not an easy trick, I’m telling you.It was chilly out, but in the tent with the
fly in place, we were quite comfortable.

We got up about 6 a.m. and fired up the one burner stove for
tea and cocoa.About 8,

the others started exiting their RV s and we started
breakfast – we had bacon and pancakes – what a way to start the day!

About that time, I noticed the Judith Mountains – they were
beautiful once they came from behind the smoke!

Gloria and Charlie headed back to the auction.Buck suggested cards, which was fine with me
and Jeanine.Diane curled up with a
book.At one point Diane returned to the
tent to get her watch, as she kneeled across to get to it, her cheek touched
the pillow, and that was all she wrote!Z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z!

We started playing Pinocle – which I have not played in
about 40 years, but caught on again, enough to enjoy playing.We played until the Ladies returned, and it
was time for supper.We all contributed
food – and had a wonderful meal – spaghetti, chicken fettecine, broccoli salad,
fresh yellow and red tomatoes, fresh peaches and cookies for dessert!Then, we played cards until dark – we were
joined for awhile by another camper – he was from Phoenix, up for the
fishing.Called himself not a fisherman,
but a “troutman”I guess that says it
all!

Once again, we turned in early – crawled, fell over, tumbled
and finally go into the tent.We
decided that on the way home, we would stop by Logging Creek campground on the
off chance the red pole was still there.It was not really cold when we went to bed, but by morning, oh, whee –
it felt as though there should be frost on the grass!

After a warming cup of cocoa in the morning, I turned around
and stopped short – Good Grief – there were mountains to the south of us, too -
Obviously, Sunday was even clearer than
Saturday.After a quick good-bye to
Buck, so he could get an early start, the rest of us decided to stop for
breakfast at Eddy’s Corner – a major intersection in Central Montana.They were gracious enough to wait while we
took down our camp and literally threw it in the truck.

Back on the road again, we decided to take a short-cut over
to Highway 89, to that treacherous road from Monarch to Logging Creek to check
for the tent pole.Actually, only 4
miles out of the 13 are hairy – but they are being improved.The one major hairpin turn (you feel like you
are being turned inside out going around it) is being widened and “gentled”
out.We decided they might be planning
on doing some logging back in there, and the big trucks could not have made it
around that turn.

We got to the campground, searched carefully around, with no
luck.No pole.So we headed back up and over the mountain on
that same 13 mile road.As soon as we
got back to Diane’s, I got on the computer to see if I could get another roof
pole.I got to the web site – couldn’t
find my tent on the list.Had to go
out and haul the tent from the far end of the truck bed and got the model name
of my tent.Still couldn’t find it so I
decided to see if there was a list of parts on the bag – back out to the
truck.OK, now we’re getting
somewhere.There was the parts list
sewn to the inside of the tent bag.OK,
let’s see – red center pole – center?Hm.m.m.m.
– OOPS – the red pole is for the center of the roof – there is only one of
them!There are two other – grey poles
for the roof.My bad.I walked over to Diane, turned my back and
told her she could kick me if she wanted – when I explained, she laughed and
laughed!

The good thing is that when we leave for Canada on Tuesday,
at least we’ll have the big tent so we can move around it without crawling over
each other!!!

On the cut through to Monarch – signs of fall were
everywhere – all the low growing shrubs are turning, and at higher elevations
the Quaking Aspens are showing some outstanding color.